


Until It Wasn’t

by Mei_MyselfandI



Series: ColdFlash Week 2018 [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, ColdFlash Week 2018, Fluff, Hostage Situations, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Kidnapping, M/M, MARRIED COLDFLASH, Michael Snart - Freeform, Minor Violence, Original Character(s), Tumblr: coldflashweek, others too - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 07:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14373852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mei_MyselfandI/pseuds/Mei_MyselfandI
Summary: “We’re going to be okay, Michael.” He whispers to his son. His son who is terrified and shaking, trying so hard to stifle the sobs that threatened to spill from his lips.He hears Michael sniffle, “H-how do you know?”Hurry, Len.





	Until It Wasn’t

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 2 of Coldflash Week April 2018: Hostage/Kidnapping Situation! This took foreva to write I hope you like it!!

“We’re going to be okay, Michael.” He whispers to his son. His son who is terrified and shaking, trying so hard to stifle the sobs that threatened to spill from his lips. His brave little boy, “Don’t worry Michael he’ll be here soon.”

He hears Michael sniffle, “H-how do you know?”

Barry smiles at him and hopes Micheal can see it because he can’t hold it for long. “He always is.” Then Barry drops his smile as soon as Michael rests his head back on his lap, his hand running through the short curls.

_Hurry, Len._

\---

The day was going so well too.

Barry was out with Michael they’d just ate at the diner and Michael desperately pleaded if they could go to the park. Barry had said yes since it was nice out and Michael had behaved extremely well, almost too well. When they got to the park Barry had sat down on one of the benches and watched Michael play. He was resting back when his son came up to him, hand clasped behind his back, puppy-dog pout, that Len could _never_ resist, in place, and his eyes wide.

He bounced on the balls of his feet looking slightly nervous,“Yes, Michael?”

“ _Canipleasepracticeusingmypowerthereisnoonehere_.” Barry blinked but he did, in fact, catch everything Michael had said, being a speedster has its perks he guessed.

“Michael,” Barry began, “You know the rules.”

He pouted and stomped his feet. Barry tried his best not to smile, but Michael was so cute when he got ‘angry’, “Fine.” Michael stomped his way back to the playground.

When a few more kids of Michael’s age came to the park and started playing with him, he finally stopped stomping around and glaring at Barry. Then the playground was filled with sounds of screeching children and laughter, everything was fine.

Until it wasn’t.

There was a difference between quiet and _too quiet_. All the kids had left and Michael had just been playing with another girl on the swings, a second ago. Barry stood up, nervous, “Michael!” he paused and waited for a response but when he got none he shouted again, “ _Michael_!” This time he swore he heard a faint sound coming from the woods.

Barry flashed as close as possible to where he heard the sound. As he looked around all he saw was tall evergreens and oak trees so he shouted again,“Michael!”

Then a voice behind him said, “Is that your daddy, Michael?” Barry turned around to see what looked liked the young girl Michael was playing with all grown up. He glared at her as Michael looked at him, terrified, “Let him go.”

He tried to move closer but the woman had gripped Michael’s shoulder, he had no idea what she was capable of, “Not so fast.” She smirked at him. One hand remained on Michael’s shoulder as the other moved to point out, towards him, a grey watch device on her arm, flashed red, “You’re a meta too, my dear? This is wonderful, I’ll get a lovely price for you both, sets are quite difficult to come by.”

“You’re trafficking metahumans? You’re are one, how—” His face scrunched up in utter disgust.  

She shrugged, “Not exactly.” Then snapped her fingers, “Now, sleep.” The moment she said that he tried to move for Michael but he ended on the dirt floor of the woods, his eyes closing slowly, the last thing he saw was Michael running towards him.

 —-

He’s blinking, his eyes open trying to remember what the hell is going on. And then he does  _remember._ Barry is shooting up, “Michael!”

“Dad!” His son is up and running towards him barreling into his arms.

Barry is patting and feeling every inch of his boy to make sure, to be sure, that he’s okay. “What happened? Did they do anything to you?” 

“No, I just woke and you were still sleeping,” Michael buries his head in his chest, tiny arms wrapping around his back. “I was so scared!”  

“We’re okay, everything’s going to be fine.” Barry wraps his arm tight around his son holding him close. And that's when he noticed the grey handcuffs on his and Michael's wrists. They were blocking their powers. 

“I wouldn’t lie to him like that.” Another voice speaks in the far corner where Barry can barely see, but he manages to make out a small feminine figure curled up in the corner.

“There’s more of you?” He asked, disregarding what she had just said.

She sighed, “Yea, there’s four of us including me. I think they separate us on purpose. That bitch called us singles, said you two were a set?”

Barry nods then realizes she probably can’t see him so he says, “Okay. What're your names?”

“You first.”

“I’m Barry Allen.”

“I’m Tara.”

“Janus.” Another voice called out, but this time Barry couldn’t make out a body.

“Eli.”

“K-kelly.”

Tara, Eli, and Janus based on the sound of their voice are probably teenagers. Kelly sounds the youngest of all of them, the closest to Michael’s age, and that terrifies him. Still, they all sound young, maybe not all as young as Michael, but still to him they were all kids. Barry felt his teeth grind. How could someone do that, how despicable, vile of a person does someone have to traffic people, _kids_?

“Listen to me, all of you.” Barry pulls out his best parent voice, “We are all going to be absolutely fine.” Tara scoffs. “You don’t have to believe me, but know that we are all going to be okay.”

Then it’s one of the boys that are speaking, Janus, he thinks, “Do you know why the hell they took us?”

Oh, god. This was the last conversation Barry wanted to be having. He had hoped that all the kids knew they were metahumans. “Have any of you done something that you thought wasn’t possible, something crazy or insane, like a superpower.”

“I-I can talk to my d-dog sometimes,” Kelly is quiet and her voice keeps wavering, it makes Barry’s heart ache, “And, the animals outside too.”

“Exactly, that’s what I’m talking about.” Barry runs his fingers through Michael’s hair who was laying on his lap now, passed out, “Michael here can create ice and I-” He doesn’t know what to say. To reveal that he has super speed would definitely give up his identity, “-I can heal really fast.”

“That’s lame,” Eli says and the rest are laughing, the tension finally snapping. Barry’s fine with them making fun of him, hearing them laugh is better than hearing them terrified.

“Anyone else want to share then?” Barry finds out that Eli has telekinesis and found out when he had been trying to do a ‘magic trick’. Janus says that he doesn’t have a power or at least it didn't activate yet and Tara has x-ray vision that she can turn and on and off.

“So we been kidnapped, because we have superpowers?” Tara askes.

“Yes, they- _we_ are called metahumans,” Barry answers then whispers to himself, “and I had no idea they were trafficking them.”

Then Janus is asking, “So then why can’t you guys just use your powers to get us out of here?”

Barry lifts his wrist, “These cuffs they block them.”

“So then how the hell are you so sure we’re getting out of here?”

Then Barry is smiling, “Because, I happened to be married to one of the best men I know. And trust me he will stop at nothing to find us.”

 

_\---_

 

Len presses his gun against the man’s chin standing over him. “What do you know, Rivers.” The man just whimpers, “I don’t know man, I don't know alright! Unless your kids a meta, I don’t know.”

Len’s eyes go wide then he glares back at Rivers who is close to pissing himself. “Mick, get over here.”

“With pleasure, boss.” Mich saunters over, his bulking figure is intimidating from far away. From up close, well, Leonard doesn’t pity the man.

“Say hypothetically my kid was a meta, Rivers.” He doesn’t say anything at first and Len gives Mick a look and he lights up his gun.

“Alright, alright! There’s been this new crew in town the leader calls herself Mitra. She’s been nabbing mostly meta kids and if your kid is—  

“—Hypothetically—” Len corrects him.

— _hypothetically_ a meta then she probably has ‘em. But, just last week she looking for ‘sets’ she called 'em.”

“What are sets, Rivers.”

“Awe, come on, man. I told you what you wanted!”

He pushed the gun up closer to his chin and press the trigger powering it up. “Sets are a meta parent and meta kid. That way she,can- _you know_.

Len feels his body go cold with anger, “Make more kids.”

"That’s disgusting.” Mick gruffs out.

“And what does she do with them, Rivers?”

“God, I don’t know! Sell them to the highest bidder I’m guessin’. Who doesn’t want a fucking superpowered kid?”

Len smirks at him, it's cold and sharp, “Thanks, Rivers. Make sure to tie him up Mick and drop him off at CCPD.”

“Wait, what! What the hell man!?” River tries to run, but Mick catches before he can move an inch.

Len turns to him one last time,“Facilitating human trafficking Rivers—not a good look.” Then he’s out the door.

\---  

“Human trafficking!” Len says walking into the cortex Cisco at the computer jumps and the rest of them turns to look at him.

“What about it?” Cisco askes.

“There’s this new hotshot in town, calls herself, Mitra. And she’s trafficking metahumans especially kids and their parents.”

“Barry and Michael.” Iris gasps.

“Exactly.”

“So how the hell we gonna find them, Snart?” West is crossing his arms and walking towards Iris.

“Cisco.”

“On it.”

“On what exactly?” Caitlin came up behind Cisco staring at the monitors. “Are you—”

“—tracking the location of Michael? Yes.” Cisco answered not taking his eyes off the screen or hands of the keyboard.

“You put a tracker on my grandson, Snart?”

He turned to detective West, “Do you mean If I put a tracker on _my son_?” He pauses glaring down West, “Then yes I did.”

“Dad, Leonard.” Iris comes between them, “We don’t have time to be fighting over stupid stuff like this. And Dad, thank god he did, we can find them now.

"Then why didn’t you use this earlier?”

Len turns around and moves near Cisco to look at the computer screen, “Because, we first didn’t know what we were dealing with and second trackers are easier to discover when there emitting a signal, then when they're off, West.” The detective just grunts and stays quiet.

Then all of a sudden Cisco's typing stops, “Got it!” he turns to Len, “There at Ferris Air Testing Facility, they’re planning to move them by plane!” Len is out the door in a matter of seconds.

  


—-

_Hurry, Len._

Tara and the others had already been taken from the freight. Barry had to stand there between the barrier diving them, unable to do anything but watch. He had promised them, swore to them that he would save them, that nothing would happen to them.

He just couldn’t do it alone and he couldn’t risk Michael.

“Hey honey, Michael, I’m going to ask you do something very scary and I need you to be very brave.”

 —-

Leonard parks a little way off from the Airway, scoping out the building from afar. He has Mick near the south entrance and Lisa on the other waiting for his signal. He puts his hand up to his ear to turn on the com, “Go in. Stay quiet.”

He enters from one of the back doors that he knows will lead him straight to where there holding his son and his husband. He's walking down the hallway, making as little noise as possible and then there is an uproar of voices. Guards are coming, barreling down the hallway, their steps are urgent and quick. Leonard is slipping into what looks like a break room.

Len is pressing himself against the wall, the guards passing by him, quick and hurried. He turns to go to the door again but then there is motion near the back of the room, he pulls out his cold gun, “Who’s there?” The shuffling doesn’t stop until Leonard is putting down the cold gun and running towards, “ _Michael_!”

“Daddy!” Michael is hugging him and crying snot and tears are getting all over his parka, but he could care less. All that matters is that his baby is safe. “Michael, how did you get away?”

“When they came for us Dad had pushed the guards away and he told me to run, Michael, run! And, I ran as fast as I could. But, Dad he’s still over there and we don’t have our powers.” He holds out his hand that has metal cuffs over them. How dare they cuff his boy like a common criminal, he promises he'll have hell rain down upon them.

He puts a hand on his coms, “Cisco, we have a problem.”

 

—-

Barry’s head gets smashed against the side of the truck, and he’s seeing three of everything before the world tilts upward.

The woman from before walks in, “Have you found the boy?”

“No, ma'am.” _Thank god_. She clicks her tongue, “It’s fine as long as we have him,” She points to Barry, “It’s fine.” She smiles at him, it makes him want to throw up. “Put him with the rest of the cargo.”

“You’re disgusting.” He spat at her.

“No I’m Mitra, It can be translated to ‘friend’ in some languages, you know.”

Friend why would she tell him that? Then Barry remembers the little girl that Michael had been playing with. He remembers how she looked exactly like the woman standing before him,“That’s how you catch them, you lure them pretending to be their friend and then you—”

She’s walking away her heels clicking on the hard ground and he wonders if this is it. His ribs hurt, his nose is still bleeding, his head is still throbbing and the guards are dragging him closer and closer towards the plane.

“Not so fast, sista.” The guards stop moving as Lisa appears gold gun in hand with Mick at her side. “I’m gonna need my brother-in-law back, sorry.”

 

—-

 

While Lisa and Mick were busy with Mitra, trying to encase her in gold and flambe her, Barry had tried to struggle again. But, the guards had just pushed him against the side of the truck holding him still.

Then there was a sudden blast of cold, “Get your hands off my husband.” He shot the first guard hitting him in the chest and Barry pushed forward finally able to get free, while Leonard shot the other one encasing his body to the floor.

“Len!” He’s running towards him wrapping his arms around Leonard’s neck pulling him close, his mouth is on his before Barry even realizes it.

“Hey, Barry.” Leonard pulls back taking in his appearance and he sees Len getting pissed.

“Hey, hey it’s okay, I’m fine, I’ll be fine.” Barry gulps, “Did you find Michael?”

Len nods, “I had him hide where he was before just in case, Cisco is coming with the van.”

“Good.” Barry turns to point at the airplane, “We also have bigger problems, there are kids on that plane we have to get them out of here.”

Leonard nods again and they start moving carefully towards it, Mick and Lisa handling Mitra well enough that it looks like they don’t need any support. Len ices anyone in there way and then there Barry pulling the door open while Leonard is guarding it.

“Barry!” They all simultaneously scream at him. There’s more light on the plane then there was on the truck, he can _see_ them now. They all look so, so young. “I told you I would get you guys out of here.”

They're all getting up and running towards the door and he’s ushering them out and down the stairs, quickly and quietly.

“Man, you look like shit.” Tara comments.

Then Eli follows up, “Bet that healing power would come in handy right about now.”

Barry shaking his head and smiling, “You have _no idea._ ” They're all laughing again.

“Who’s this?” Kelly who was to exhaust to walk, now in Barry's arms, points to Len.

“Kids, this is Len, my husband," Len's gives them a little salute, "Len this is Tara, Janus, Eli, and Kelly. Good? Good.” Barry hands Kelly over to Tara, “You guys are going to make a break for it, I’ll be right behind you.” The kids are running towards the exit, with the guards and Mitra still occupied with Mick and Lisa, it's an easy getaway. But both Mick and Lisa looked like they could use some help, right about now.

Barry turns to Len, “I’m going to get Michael. Go, help them."

“You’ll be okay?” Len askes and Barry just leans up and presses a soft kiss to his lips.

“Kick her ass for me.”

 

—-

 

Barry is grabbing Michael from his hiding place and carrying him in his arms while he runs to the exit. When he gets there Cisco and Caitlin are already there tending to the other kids. “Barry!” Caitlin is holding a hand over her mouth in shock.

“I know I’ll look terrible.” He’s chuckling and putting Micheal down.

“That’s one way to put it.” Cisco comments offhandedly.

“Thanks.”

Cisco scoffs, “Come here, I’ll take the cuffs off.”

Barry points to the kids, “Did you do them?”

“Yep, done and uncuffed. Just come here, dude.”

Barry holds out a hand to Cisco hold pulls out some kind of key, “What is that?”

“It’s kind of like a master key for all metahumans cuffs since they all use a similar program.”

“Huh.” The cuffs fall off with a clang on the ground and Barry can feel the speed force rushing back, he can feel himself start healing almost instantly. 

“The suit is in the van,” Caitlin says tending to Kelly.

“The suit?” Tara askes.

Barry smiles awkwardly at the kids and shrugs, “Sorry?”

He flashes away.

 

—-

 

By the time he's got there the fight is almost over. Mitra has no more guards left and it’s now four against one. When Len gets a clear shot that she can’t doge he flashes behind slapping cuffs on her wrists.

“Flash!” She growls.  

“Karma is a bitch, you know.”

 

—-

 

When everything's said and done they return the kids back to their families and everything is finally okay. They make sure to give the kids permission to come to the labs if they ever want to practice using their powers. 

After they return to Star Labs where Joe and Iris pounce on them checking every inch and asking what happened. Barry had everybody sit down and told them from start to finish. Then finally they headed home, Barry was exhausted and he was sure Michael was too.

And, when Michael is fast asleep, Barry is lying curled up against Len, in there bed barely awake, he proposes the idea.

“What if we open a meta-school?” Barry yawns. “Like we can teach kids on how to control their power n’ stuff.” Len turns on his side wrapping his arm around Barry’s waists and pulling him closer.

Barry buries his head against Len’s chest, “Like X-Men, Scarlet?”

“ _Exactly._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo what did you think? 
> 
> Comments and kudos are everything!!


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